


Three-Card Monte

by Swashbuckler



Series: The Crimelord, the Kid, and the Con Artist [3]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), The Flash (Comics)
Genre: A brief mention of alcohol however none is purchased or consumed, Banter, Bodyswap, Canon Era, Contortionists - Freeform, Flying, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Magic, Metahumans, Mild Language, Partners in Crime, Team Dynamics, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 04:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20147701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swashbuckler/pseuds/Swashbuckler
Summary: Thanks to another Rogue causing chaos across Central City, Team Trickster learn what it's like to be in each other's shoes.Literally.





	Three-Card Monte

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bubblegumfae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblegumfae/gifts).

She had been sat at the desk in the control room, watching the city on a dozen screens, tracking the Flash through the hijacked surveillance feed that Central had unknowingly provided them. He hadn’t shown for the best part of an hour, and she had been growing impatient, when a red blur had flit through the park making her time finally worth it. She rapidly switched the feed as the Flash made his way west across the city, speeding down blocks until he slammed to a halt in the city centre. She watched as the citizens began to cluster and crowd, only to scatter as someone else descended out of the air, landing opposite the Flash with a bow. 

Copperhead squinted. That’s not Weather Wizard, it can’t be. She reached for the control panel, scrolling inward on the man, who raised something in his hand--

She had been sat at the desk in the control room.

Now she was lounging on her front on a bed that wasn’t hers, in a room that wasn’t hers, staring at a social media feed on a phone that wasn’t hers, chin resting in a hand that was not hers.

_What the hell. _

* * *

It was like someone had turned the volume up on every scent in the hideout. He could smell the remains of yesterday’s dinner lurking in the kitchen, the imprint of gunpowder from the explosive testing earlier, and even the shadow of the cologne he’d worn on his date with the detective was in there somewhere, but that had been two days ago and he’d showered and--

He pulled his hands away from where he’d smothered his nose and mouth, frowning at the screens that had appeared in front of him. He looked at his hands. He glanced down at his lap - he hadn’t been sitting a moment ago - and found himself staring at brown and black leather instead of blue and yellow stripes.

Okay. _That’s new._

The sound of someone running down the hallway towards him made him stand up quickly and - after a glance down at the body that _was not his_ and a moment’s consideration - zip the top of Copperhead’s suit up to her throat.

The kid shot into the room, panting and pointing at him. 

“You! Who are you?” 

He raised Copperhead’s chin. “Nice try, but not even Jesse knows my real name.” 

The kid advanced on him, glaring with a ferocity he knew Axel didn’t have. “Quit playing. Why the hell are you in my body?” 

“Wait, Copperhead? You’re--” He pointed between them both.

“Yes, it’s me! Why are you me?” 

“You tell me!” he said, wide-eyed. “I was in the workshop when--” He suddenly gagged, hand clamping over Copperhead’s mouth.

“What,” Copperhead asked with Axel’s voice as she watched herself go pale and whine, “what’s wrong?”

He flapped Copperhead’s hands and stuck out her tongue, pointing to the inch-deep split that made the forked tip. “Wha’ th’ hell?”

“Oh.” Copperhead said, Axel’s baggy overshirt bobbing on his shoulders as she shrugged. “I don’t notice it.” She scowled as she watched herself whine imploringly down at her. “Stop making me look like an idiot and put my tongue away.” 

He complied, and Copperhead sneered as he pouted. “Don’t be such a baby. At least you’re not suddenly a tiny teenage boy!” she snapped, gesturing above Axel’s head and the height difference between herself and, well, herself. 

“You ha’ no idea how muth I wanna pa’ you on th’ hea’ righ’ ‘ow.”

“Do it and I will bite you.” 

“You’d on’y be bitin’ y’self,” he said, with all the patronising sympathy someone trying not to move their tongue could manage. He paused, and Copperhead’s face turned curious with him as he hooked a finger into her mouth and carefully touched the points of her canines. “Hey, your ve’om--” he pulled Copperhead’s finger away, and Copperhead didn’t miss the way he made an acclimatizing little flick with her tongue before continuing “--is it your venom? Like - yours-yours?” He pointed at her mouth.

“I’m not answering that, kid.”

“Hey, it was worth ask-- Wait. ‘Kid’? That’s a bit rich, coming from you right now.”

“Very funny, Axel, but just because y--” Copperhead cocked Axel’s head to the side as she watched her own face contort into something deeply alarmed. “You’re… not Axel.”

“No,” James said, eyes wide. “Not even close.”

“Ah.” 

_“Yeah.”_

“So that means--”

“I’m you,” James said, pointing from himself to Copperhead in Axel’s body opposite him, “you’re him,” he pointed twice at Copperhead, “and, by process of elimination, that’s gotta mean that he’s--”

“Holy _shit!”_

Copperhead and James turned to see what should have been James burst into the room, clutching his face, eyes wide with awe. 

_“I want a mirror.”_

* * *

“This is sick,” Axel laughed, turning James’ head and prodding his jawline with his gloved fingertips.

“Oh, I hate this,” James said cheerfully. 

“Shut up, you love me.”

“Not as much as you apparently love being me!” James countered. “You didn’t set this all up, did you? Because if you did-- kudos, this is a pretty good trick. Identity theft on a whole new level. Bet it beats breaking into my storage locker to play dress up, eh, kid?” 

“You ever gonna let that go?” 

“Nope,” James said brightly. 

“Yeah, well, if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here, and face it, you like me now.” 

“Eh,” James said, inspecting Copperhead’s nails, “jury’s still out.” 

“Liar,” Axel jeered.

“Trickster!” corrected James with a smile. Axel sniggered. 

“I’m glad you two are enjoying this,” Axel’s voice said; Copperhead had reclaimed her station at their surveillance hub. The kid’s body was smaller and shorter than her own, and she’d had to adjust the chair up to its full height so she could reach everything on the control panel without struggling, and, as a result, her feet were now dangling from her seat, unable to touch the floor.

She _dared_ Jesse to laugh.

“Him, there--” Copperhead pointed Axel’s hand at the screen, glancing at the metal of his forearm as his loose shirt sleeve slipped down. “The Flash chased him through the city. It was after he appeared that this all happened.” Her own body appeared next to her, watching the screen over her head. 

“Ooh, c’mon, that’s not fair.” Copperhead frowned at how whiny Jesse was making her sound as he grumbled. “That’s Abra.” 

“Abra?” she asked, squinting at the man in black and white with a flowing cloak on the paused screen. 

“Yeah, Abra Kadabra-- oh, don’t laugh,” James tutted as Copperhead snorted. “He’s got future science that looks and works like magic and he’s a giant jackass who’s one-upping our plans!” 

“He hasn’t touched Iron Heights.” 

James huffed. “True. But this is big, people will be talking about this for ages. Flash and Abra are in the centre of Central; we’re practically in Keystone here. Do we know how far this reaches? Are we the limit, or--?” 

“Uh--” Axel patted James’ coat pockets out of reflex . “--phone? Pockets, you don’t have pockets-- Copperhead, I need my phone.”

James sniffed. “I do have pockets, you’ll just never find them.” 

“How the hell do you have pockets in leggings?” 

“Trade secret.”

Copperhead pulled Axel’s phone out of the deep pocket of his checked trousers. “Would it kill you to wear clothes that fit?” she asked, genuinely curious as she tossed Axel his phone which he caught, just. “Everything’s so baggy. How are you comfortable?” 

“I like the look,” Axel shrugged, flipping his phone in his hand and unlocking it. “Why the hell do you two run around in clothes that look sprayed on, yo?” 

“I don’t like wearing anything I could get tangled in,” Copperhead muttered, glaring at the loose overshirt Axel wore as part of his costume. “I prefer to have my movements unrestricted.” 

“And I was an acrobat: I was in spandex way before I started playing stick-’em-up with a bank,” James said. “You don’t want to wear anything that could get caught during an act.” 

“Yeah, but you used to wear a cape as a Rogue though.” 

“Yeah, well, _I liked the look._” 

“Okay, so Abra’s spell or whatever seems to only be affecting Central-- Twitter’s blown up in the area with people talking about it - people are freaked - but nothing’s showing in the Keystone area for it,” Axel said, flipped his phone round and scrolling through a string of benign tweets tagged with Keystone’s location to show James and Copperhead.

“Hmm, okay,” James sighed. “Flash’ll probably be on this - unless he’s also been switched around?” he mused with interest. “Wonder who he’s ended up playing if he has.”

“It has to be location based, if we’ve all switched with each other,” Copperhead pointed out. “Otherwise there is a good chance we’d be scattered across the ci-- What are you doing?” 

James followed Copperhead’s line of sight over her shoulder to look at Axel, who was fidgeting in James’ body. “You’re not gonna find my pockets, Axel.” 

“Try me,” Axel countered, patting James’ thighs, then his hips, then his stomach, then his sides, then froze. “Wait.” His hands returned to James’ midriff. “Do I--” He prodded James’ stomach again. “_Ohmygosh I have abs._” 

“Uh, _I_ have abs,” James corrected, but Axel wasn’t listening.

“Wait wait wait wait wait--!” Axel was awkwardly wrestling his arms out of coat sleeves that weren’t his usual three sizes too big for him. 

“Oho, this is awesome,” he grinned, flexing his James’ tanned arms. He poked his bicep. “This is so much better than the Strength Force special. Hey, how many pushups can you do?” 

James sighed at Copperhead. “I’m never getting my body back, am I?”

“Nope,” Copperhead snickered as Axel preened at his reflection in the mirror, turning to admire his muscular arms and shoulders. She stretched Axel’s legs out in front of her, frowning thoughtfully at his trainers. “Although…”

“Hmm?” 

“If we’re going to be stuck like this for a while, we may as well make the most of it.”

James raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?”

* * *

“Okay, what do I do from here?” James called. This was weird. The gymnasium was upside-down, his-- Copperhead’s hands flat on the mat below-- above--? him, and if he lifted his head and righted the world, his knees were by his ears. 

“If you’ve folded yourself backwards, keep your weight on your hands, and take your feet off the ground,” ‘Axel’ called from somewhere above him. “You’ll want to lift from your hips.”

Okay then. James fought the urge to clamp Copperhead’s tongue between his teeth as he lifted one foot, then the other off of the mat, keeping Copperhead’s legs stretched straight over his head. “Ha!”

“Enjoying yourself?” Copperhead called. 

“This is so weird,” James laughed by way of assent. “Well, you might not be in your body right now, but your muscle memory hasn’t gone anywhere. How’re you doing up there?” 

“Alright,” Copperhead said. “How are you supposed to navigate in these?” 

“You just walk,” James and Axel said in unison, with Copperhead and James’ voices. 

“O-kay,” she said, taking a wobbly step forward.

“Don’t worry, they’ve got real good stabilisers built in,” Axel said from the ground below her. “It’s chill, you won’t fall.”

“That’s what they were made to prevent,” James chimed, unfolding Copperhead from the half handstand and sitting up.

“How do you go up and down?” Copperhead asked.

“You can either walk like you’re climbing invisible stairs--” James offered.

“--or you can tilt your feet forwards if you want to go up, backwards if you want to go down without changing direction,” Axel added. “Hey, yo, Jesse, how do you switch yours on? I’m having no luck here and it’s super dull being grounded.” 

“There’s no place like home, Axel.” 

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” 

“There is no place like home!” 

“What?” 

“Oh, you-- Click your heels together, you muppet!” 

“Oh! You coulda just said that!”

The spurs on James’ boots clinked as Axel clicked his heels together three times; he smiled triumphantly as he rose gracefully upwards.

“Tell you what, outta all your toys, the Airwalkers will always be the coolest,” Axel grinned, leaning back with his hands behind his head as he floated lazily in the air.

“Can’t beat a classic,” James smiled. “Hey, Copperhead, what should I try next?” 

“Try doing the splits!” Copperhead suggested, walking over the air above James. 

“I can do the splits in my own body,” James scoffed. “Gimme something challenging!” 

“Wait, you can do the splits?” Axel asked, attention leaving Copperhead. He clicked his heels together again, dropping out of the air and landing on the gym mats. “Show me how.” 

“Kneel down on one knee, then stretch out your leg in front of you and slide down as you lower your hips--” 

“Okay.” 

“--but stretch first,” James stressed. “Or you’ll hurt yourself - and myself when we end up switching back - and getting cramp bites.” 

“‘Kay. Hey, Copperhead, you good?” Axel called. Copperhead had stopped in her walk was shifting from foot to foot. 

“It feels like there’s ground beneath my feet despite there being--” she looked at the eight foot drop beneath her feet “--nothing.” 

“Cool, right?” Axel grinned. 

“Tell you what, you tell when your birthday is, Copperhead, and I’ll make you a pair,” James called up to her. 

“I’m not telling you that, Trickster.” 

James pouted. “One day I’ll get something about her private life out of her.” 

“Do you know her real name?” Axel whispered.

“Not a clue,” James grumbled, putting his chin in his hand as he folded Copperhead’s hips over his head and put feet either side of his head on the mat. Above them, Copperhead had started to run around the room ten feet up in the air, abandoning her careful steps for bounding leaps. 

“Okay, so, like this?” Axel asked, lowering himself carefully to the floor, James’ leg stretched out in front of him.

“Yeah, just like that. Now, if you lean forwards you’ll be able to stretch and reach your toes.” 

“Wait, you can touch your toes?” 

“_¡Qué demonios!_ You _can’t_ touch your toes?” Copperhead had come to an abrupt halt above them. She tipped Axel’s Airwalkers back, lowering herself slowly. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She dropped onto the mat, stretching Axel’s arms up and bending forwards. She made a pained noise as she strained, but Axel’s fingertips could barely reach past his knees.

“Awww,” Copperhead’s voice crooned with all of James’ mirth. 

“Shut up,” whined Axel. “I’m not a freaking snake-Meta-contortionist or an ex-acrobat, leave me alone.” 

Copperhead straightened up with a wince, her offense at Axel’s inflexibility obvious. “You were right about the muscle memory. Okay, forget ransacking Central City, I’m teaching you to touch your toes.” 

“I mean, sure - can you teach me to do that, too?” Axel asked, pointing at James who was still sat comfortably twisted on the gym mat. 

“One thing at a time.” 

“Mm,” James hummed, unfolding Copperhead from her complicated pose and rolling onto his back. “We should probably think about dinner.”

“What are you feeling?” Copperhead asked. 

“Italian?” James suggested to the gymnasium ceiling. “There’s that place that knows me that’ll give us a good discount, but I’d have to give you--” he pointed at Axel “--cash and a crash course in Italian for that to work.” 

“You actually pay them with real money?” 

“Yeah, their food’s good, I don’t want them to go out of business,” James laughed, propping himself up on Copperhead’s elbows. 

Axel had an idea. “If I go can I buy booze on the way?” 

“No,” James and Copperhead said as one.

“But I won’t get carded like this!” 

“One - you’re not joyriding in my body to go buy booze, and two - sssince when do you, a _Rogue_, have a legit ID and why do shop in places that actually card you?” James asked incredulously, making a frustrated little wiggle with Copperhead’s tongue at the hiss he couldn’t keep back. 

“I mean, I don’t, and I don’t, but it’s the principle, y’know?” 

“Alright, okay, whatever you say,” James smiled wryly. “But still no.”

“Gah.” 

“There’s that place a few blocks down that does good takeaway,” Copperhead suggested, having climbed back up into the air. “Also our surveillance feed on that block has been down for two days now; it needs fixing as soon as possible. Whoever goes will have to sort it on the way.” 

“Ah, great,” James muttered. “That’s the one with the really annoying fusebox wedged up between the vents, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“Dibs not going!” Axel said quickly. 

“And considering I currently look like I’m twelve, I’d say that’s an issue for someone else,” Copperhead pointed out. 

“Hey, I don’t look twel--.” 

“I am in charge here,” James said seriously. “I get to say how things go down.” 

Axel and Copperhead blinked at him. 

James raised Copperhead’s hand. “Rock-paper-scissors to see who does it?” 

“Alright.”

“‘Kay.” 

There was a mutter of “one-two-three” under James’ breath and then--

* * *

“Stupid rock-paper-scissors,” Axel grumbled, kicking dried leaves as he walked down the block towards the intersection. He dug his hands into the pockets of James’ jacket; at least James’ civilian clothes were looser than his Trickster costume had been. As cool as the outfit was, James’ jeans were closer to the fit of his own plaid Trickster trousers - way less clingy than leggings. 

The beanie was a bit much though. 

_It’s that block there, right?_ He jogged across the quiet road, landing with a little jump on the pavement. “Should this be an Airwalker or a fire escape job?” he wondered aloud as he walked along. 

He took a step--

\--and screeched when the pavement disappeared from beneath him. 

“What the hell what the hell what the hell--” Axel breathed hard, looking around. He was back in the hideout, his own leg out in front of him, a twenty foot drop between him and the gymnasium floor. 

Hastily tipping his feet back, he dropped down five feet, then another. 

“Axel?” 

Axel looked down to see Copperhead below him scrambling to her feet, watching him with alarm.

“Are you you again?” 

“Yeah - scared the living crap outta me ending up up there,” he laughed breathlessly as he landed with a bounce on the gym mats. He scrubbed his hands through his cropped hair and tugged the sleeve of his coat up to check his right arm. “I’m guessing you enjoyed using the shoes?” he asked, teeth chattering a little as his words bubbled out with a laugh. 

“It was different, I quite liked it,” Copperhead said, only to make a face.

“You good?” Axel frowned. 

Copperhead’s tongue flicked out. “Having a normal tongue felt weird,” she said by way of an explanation. 

“Fair dos. Well, looks like Flash’s got everyone back where they’re supposed to be,” Axel said, looking down at himself as he rocked back on his heels. “Tell you what, it was pretty fun being James.” 

“Really,” Copperhead said with a dry smile. “We couldn’t tell.” 

“Wait, wait-- If I’m back as me and you’re back as you,” Axel said, grinning. “That’s gotta mean James is--”

* * *

“Aw man.” 

James craned his neck at the apartment block in front of him.

“Darn you, Flash.”

**Author's Note:**

> "Three-Card Monte" is the card trick and con also known as "Find the Lady" wherein people on the street are encouraged to bet money on their ability to find a particular card (generally a Queen - aka the Lady) that is shuffled face side down with two other cards. Simple, right? 
> 
> (It was one of those 'could've punched the air in celebration for coming up with the perfect fic title' moments. They are good when they happen.)
> 
> This fic was a lot of fun to write because 1) the scenario is silly and 2) it was a challenge as to how to narrate a three-person switch-around, and having to consider how to make it clear who is speaking when they're all in different bodies.
> 
> This fic was prompted/suggested by BubblegumFae on tumblr!
> 
> And, disclaimer: I can't touch my toes either. :P


End file.
